US points to 'good discussions' during Stockholm talks with North Korea

The United States has refused North Korea's claims that the Saturday denuclearization talks were not a success, with the US State Department pointing to some new initiatives that could help make progress in the negotiations.

On Saturday, Pyongyang's chief negotiator Kim Myong Gil announced that US-North Korean talks in Stockholm failed because the US delegation had not carried out the necessary preparations and did not put anything on the negotiation table. The North Korean delegation recommended terminating the talks until the end of the year.

"The early comments from the DPRK delegation do not reflect the content or the spirit of today's 8 1/2 hour discussion. The U.S. brought creative ideas and had good discussions with its DPRK counterparts," US State Department Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said in a Saturday statement, adding that the US delegation "previewed a number of new initiatives that would allow us to make progress in each of the four pillars of the Singapore joint statement."

The North Korean diplomats left the venue of the Saturday Stockholm meeting early, without waiting for the negotiations to end. Kim Myong Gil said the US side came empty-handed.

"The United States and the DPRK will not overcome a legacy of 70 years of war and hostility on the Korean Peninsula through the course of a single Saturday. These are weighty issues, and they require a strong commitment by both countries," US State Department Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus stressed in the Saturday statement.

According to Ortagus, the United States accepted the invitation of Sweden to hold another round of US-North Korean talks in Stockholm in two weeks time. No mention was made of the North Korean stance on the proposal.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been calling for more flexibility on the part of Washington, particularly with regard to sanctions, amid stalled talks between Pyongyang and the United States on the stabilization of the situation on the Korean peninsula.

The denuclearization talks were initiated following the first-ever meeting between the leaders of the United States and North Korea in Singapore in June 2018.

After the Singapore summit, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un released a four-point joint statement, agreeing to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the establishment of peace in the region and a reset of bilateral relations, as well as the recovery of remains of US soldiers killed during the Korean War.